Shooting Guns on the World Stage: How Entry-Level Guns Can Help You Train

In shooting sports, we see common disciplines that the average American probably has a general understanding of. Trap and skeet shooting for example. At the minimum, most people know these two disciplines involve shotguns and clay targets. While shotgun sports are better known, there are other shooting sports that the average person can participate in outside of traditional disciplines.

The International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) is a worldwide organization that holds different events around the world. Under their umbrella and rules, national, regional, and local clubs hold practical shooting events in shotgun, pistol, and rifle sports, as well as for centerfire and rimfire firearms. 

Practical shooting can be summed up as shooting a firearm for time and points while navigating a course of fire (stage) as quickly and accurately as possible. The score is calculated by dividing your points by the time it took to get them; this is called the Hit Factor. The higher your Hit Factor, the better your placement.

IPSC held the first Mini Rifle World Shoot in May of 2025 in .22 rimfire. This event was held in conjunction with the Pistol Caliber Carbine World Championships (PCC). Mini Rifle competitors shot in either the iron sight or open divisions. (The open division allows competitors to use a scope and offset red dot optic.) This event tested accuracy and speed, with 30 stages spanning 5 days of competition. The targets were paper and steel, with distances reaching out to 80 meters. Certain stages required targets to be knocked over to activate swinging or “clamshell” targets. Mini Rifle competitors were sometimes required to aim for the A-zone of a challenging “Micro” target, measuring about 2" x 6" at the largest dimensions. (See photo below.)

I led the USA women in this event and placed 5th woman overall. So much effort went into this event, from training to building the rifle that I used to helping teammates navigate their first world championship experience and even the journey there. It was a lot of work, and what we did brought so much attention to the division that the USA’s International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) region under the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) might start holding events. I will share on my social media when events are happening here in the USA!

The USA currently has no Mini Rifle competitions, so we were on our own to train for this event. Having competed three times in .223 rifle at past IPSC rifle world championships, I had a good idea of what to work on. The other part of the plan was to build my competition rifle based on recommendations from a friend in Sweden, but until I had it all together, I used the Winchester Wildcat to get my training started. In Czechia, competitors from other countries used .22s fed from easy-to-find 10/22 magazines. So don’t think you couldn’t just take your Winchester Wildcat and a big magazine and shoot a Mini Rifle-style event!

Rifle shooters worldwide commonly train with .22 LR. This is because it’s less expensive, quieter, and has less recoil. Competitors can build repetition and focus on small parts of a skill (like their vision while transitioning from one target to another) without dealing with recoil or spending a lot of resources on costly ammo.

Shooting .22 LR helps you hone your trigger pull, and to observe what happens in your sights when you snatch at the trigger or how an overly aggressive movement from one target to another or into and out of a shooting position can disturb your sights.

Mini Rifles (think of this as a .22 AR or any .22 LR) are also much lighter than a .223 rifle, allowing you to build repetition and strength without over-training your muscles. If you have a new competitor who needs to gain strength or a young person interested in shooting sports, a .22 is a great way to teach them all the basic manipulations and movements without excess weight, recoil, and noise. Also, a .22 rimfire rifle gives people who are limited to small calibers an avenue to train. Shooting a .22 is much less disruptive than a .223, so people who want or need to train at an indoor range can often use a .22 LR to hone their skills at a venue where they would be prohibited from using larger calibers.

Another area that this Mini Rifle World Championship made an impression on me is access to firearms. In many countries, people do not have the same freedoms that we have in the USA. Countries where firearm ownership is highly controlled often require citizens who want to own a gun to show proficiency with their firearms. This is generally done by competing. So, different sporting disciplines are often part of the framework used by people in other countries to own guns.

Seeing friends from around the world taking part in shooting sports drives home how blessed we are in the USA to be able to take part in the shooting sports we want to. Competing in a division like Mini Rifle, using the .22 rimfire platform to increase engagement in shooting sports, is an easy way to foster safety and responsibility with firearms for all ages while having fun and taking on new challenges.